Dacque LaRose, a
genuine good-guy and Good Samaritan, was accustomed to being visited by and
communicating with disembodied spirits as he carried out his occasional
assignments received from the Heavenly Powers. His latest spirit visit went
miles beyond anything he would have ever imagined. The spirit of a former
acquaintance and recent murder victim joined Dacque one morning on his favorite
park bench and asked him to assist in solving his murder as the local
authorities were getting nowhere, through no fault of their own but due to a
lack of any substantial evidence in the case.

Dacque had
absolutely no idea how he could be of assistance in solving a murder, but he
was accustomed to receiving his Heavenly assignments one installment at a time
so he knew the steps he would be expected to follow would appear in due course.

Dacque’s new
assignment proved exciting and educational as the spirit of the murdered
acquaintance gladly explained to Dacque and his detective friend the inner
workings of the Soul Mind or subconscious mind.

Bio for Doug Simpson:

Doug Simpson is a retired high school teacher who has turned his
talents to writing. His first novel, a spiritual mystery titled Soul Awakening,
was published in the United States in October of 2011, by Book Locker. His
magazine and website articles have been published in 2010 to 2012 in Australia,
Canada, France, India, South Africa, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
His articles can be accessed through his website at http://dousimp.mnsi.net.

Dacque LaRose exited from the 7th
Street Apartment Complex, on the chilly Monday morning in January, and walked
north on 7th Street. He preferred to take morning walks, as often as
he could, unless there was a specific reason to alter this routine, such as
accommodating the schedule of a walking companion. On the days that he walked
alone, and had no urgent errands to attend to, in order to spice-up his morning
journeys he developed a routine where he alternated his starting direction
between north and south. Walking east and west were not options, at least when
he left his apartment complex. Sunday morning had been a south day, making
Monday a north day.

Part
two of Dacque’s walking regimen incorporated his desire to walk continuously,
as in without stopping, on his outward journey. To achieve this in the small,
southern city of Anywhere, he allowed the street
lights and stop signs to direct his destinations. If he faced a red light, he
went left or right. A stop sign gave him the third option of continuing ahead,
if traffic permitted. There were days when he stubbornly circled the same block
a time or two, before he was able to eventually escape through a green light,
but he achieved his goal of not stopping.

On
this chilly Monday morning Dacque encountered his first red light at Olive
Avenue, so he crossed 7th on the green and continued west along
Olive until he was faced with a another red light at 10th Street. He
chose to cross Olive on the green light and go north again, but before he was
half way across the light turned yellow. Dacque hot-footed it to the curb, and
then crossed 10th Street on the green light. He loved it when the
traffic signals led him into this section of the city. By choice, Dacque turned
north and walked along the west side of 10th street, catching a
green light at Lime Avenue. One of the most beautiful spots in the city of Anywhere, in his opinion anyway, was MacDunnah Park, located
at the corner of 10th Street and Lime Avenue. Dacque entered the
park at the south-east corner and took the East Path north to the Central Path,
where he caught the Central Circle Path.

The
Central Circle Path, as its name implied, circled the center of the Park where
many park benches and the most-beautiful flower gardens were located, at least
in the seasons when they were in bloom. Dacque stopped, not because he was
tired, but because he came upon what he and Dani Christian, a good friend and
sometimes walking partner, referred to as ‘our bench,’ as it was on this bench
that they had first met almost a year earlier when he was directed by the
little voice he sometimes heard in his ear from the other side, or one of God’s
messengers as he liked to believe. Now, whenever Dacque or Dani, together or
alone, passed by ‘our bench,’ they always stopped and sat for a few minutes in
silent meditation. There is a story that goes with this routine, obviously, but
it will keep for another day.

After
a five to ten minute period of silent meditation on ‘our bench,’ Dacque opened
his eyes and his heart skipped more than a beat when he saw Rolland Jones
sitting on the other end of the bench. What made this event so startling was
the fact that Rolland Jones had died two months previously as the result of a
swift blow to the head from an old tire iron wielded by a yet unidentified
servant of the Devil. Dacque caught his breath and regained his composure, in
rather short order. This was not the first time that he had encountered a
departed spirit, which made the initial shock easier to neutralize. “Hello,
Rolland,” Dacque said, “I am truly pleased to see you again.”

“Hello,
Dacque,” Rolland’s spirit responded. “It looks like you won the ‘survival of
the soul’ debate we were involved in a few months ago.”

Dacque
could not refrain from laughing no matter how hard he tried. “I am sorry about
that, but it was impossible to stifle it. I am sure you know that I truly wish
I could have won the debate in some way other than this way, believe me.”

“Don’t
feel too bad,” Rolland’s spirit replied. “I know, now, that it was simply my
time to go. Karma can be a bugger, sometimes. Please tell Daphne that you saw
me, and that I want her to get on with her life as best she can. Our time
together is over, at least in her current lifetime, but I suspect that our
souls will decide to incarnate together again in the future as we apparently
have some unresolved issues to deal with. She was the determined believer in
reincarnation, as you know perfectly well, so I suspect that she will be
delighted to hear that I am still around, so to speak.”

“I
will do that,” Dacque assured him.

“I
dropped in to visit you today, to ask for your assistance in finding my
murderer. The police are getting nowhere with the case, at least at this point
in time. It’s not really their fault. The culprit who clobbered me with the
tire iron did not leave them a lot of useful clues. The police may be barking
up all of the wrong trees. That’s where you come in.”

“What
would you like me to do?”

“Time
will answer that for us. For starters though, will you see if you can come up
with a connection or contact to the police investigation? We both understand
that you cannot just walk into the cop-shop and tell them that the departed
spirit of the victim told you who the probable murderer was, so we will need to
work on this one step at a time.”

“Your
logic is good. I’m not acquainted with any of the local police officers, but I
do know a couple of people who might have some connections. Let me work on it
and see if I can locate your contact for you,” Dacque replied. “I suspect that
you realize that many people are unable to see spirits. For some reason, God
has seen fit to bless me with the ability to see and communicate with spirits,
but I would guess that I am part of a rather small minority there. Do you have
any knowledge, now that you are in spirit form again, whether our police
contact will be able to see and communicate with you, or will you expect me to
be your go-between with this contact person throughout the investigative
process?”

“As
you obviously know, Dacque, I am rather new to the spirit world on this
go-around, but I do have the priceless benefit of my soul memory from all of my
past experiences in your world as well as here in the spirit world. Apparently
the level of soul development of each human’s soul determines their abilities
to communicate with us on this side. I am probably not telling you anything
that you are not already aware of as I knew from our conversations, while in
body, that your soul was developed sufficiently to be able to see and talk to
us. So, to answer your question, the soul development of our contact will be
the primary determinant as to whether this individual will be able to
communicate with me directly, or whether we will require you to be our
translator or go-between.”

“I
understand completely,” Dacque assured Rolland’s spirit. “Is there anything else
that I should be aware of at this time?”

“I
don’t think so, but I am still slowly getting used to existing in spirit form
again, and I am not certain if I have reacquired my entire spiritual abilities
earned through previous experiences. I know my soul memory seems to be
complete, but my soul reasoning may be a little out of practice. I’ll keep in
touch,” the spirit of Rolland Jones, replied, and then disappeared.